Consulted or insulted at GRBV?

When is a consultation not a consultation? Ask the Council officers who over saw a ‘consultation’ on the Licensing forum. Or did they?

When Governance Risk and Best Value Committee (Councils watchdog) meet next Tuesday 20th February they will hear a report on if Offices did or not consult the public over membership of the Licensing forum.

Some might say this was a cover-up as with the Licensing Board due to set new policy an advisory committee could do some of its best work to advise on new policy via the forum.

But how do people get on the forum? Is it democratic or did officers make fudge and say they did a consultation on membership only not too? Did they instead just get the current set of members back in on the nod at full Council in November 2017 – did they know there were issues but [cough] swept them under the carpet [cough] in the hope no one would notice?